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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

First off, this book is an easy read. I think I read the whole thing in less than 4 hours. What makes it particularly easy, for me though, is the conversation style Mike uses in his writing. If you watch the videos above, that is exactly how he writes...my wife often gave me a weird look when I blurted out laughing. Again, if you follow Mike's musings at all, you understand why.

Hands down, this book is worth it's weight in gold because of the confidence that it will build. The chapters on what to charge for work, contracts and sticking to your process makes one feel that they are not on an island as we all deal with these same issues, but Mike will fire you up to deal with it professionally and in a manner that will make you look like an even bigger asset to the client or proposed client. And in the end, if you don't get the client, you can feel confident that you did everything that you wanted to do to make it happen and can roll on to the next one without any regret.

I should preface this review to say that this book was recommended to me by a colleague. I was unaware of Mike before reading this and haven't listened to his podcast. I assume you will enjoy this book a lot more if you are already a fan of his.

I've been a designer for 8 years (6 if you go by his reasoning), and found myself agreeing with most of what he said. The problem is, the book is far too simplified to be of any real use to anyone but an absolute beginner, and if you are a beginner, this will serve as little more than a primer to things you should research more in depth elsewhere. The stuff he talked about, from contracts to what to charge, are all good, but simplified a little too much to give confidence with what to do with the knowledge. There are very little, if any, actionable items to take away from the book.

Another note, I listened to the audible version, and would recommend the print version instead. The sound quality was lacking; it sounded like it was recorded on an iphone in an echoey room, but was listenable. It also sounded like he had a cold and a cough drop in his mouth the entire time (maybe that's just his voice; I don't know) and there were several errors where he repeated the sentence with the intention of cutting out the bad take and didn't, and you could hear someone talking in the back at the end of one chapter.

Again, he seems like a good guy, his company looks great, and this book provides some good insight if you are at the very start of your career. Otherwise, I would look elsewhere.

I've just completed this book (which is saying something by itself because of my attention span) and I was very pleased. As an 11 year veteran and small business owner it's spot on. It addresses the common problems with designers and describes break downs and solutions for client problems. Mike really understands design, has a healthy respect and appreciation for it and is not afraid to speak his mind.

You have to read this book if you hope to make a living as a designer. It's funny, informative and dang useful. However, do a websearch for this book, it's literally twice as expensive as of this writing if you get it on Amazon.

I had to get this for a class in my graphic design program and thought it would be just another one of those books you had to buy. I started to read it just to get a feel for it before we had to actually do any required readings so I would know if it was dry, or if it was going to be an easy read. To make a long story short I ended up reading the whole book before our first required reading. This is one of those books that's full of insightful information, told in witty way, that will inevitably be a reference for future scenarios in dealing with some of those hard to tackle subject like dealing with money, and client relationships.

Great book, as an introduction for designers and good tips for veteran designers alike. Good source of information and excellent refference materials for not just web but design as a whole. Takes a busines approach to supporting design and has goid experienced information that will help you. You will get sometjimg out this book, insight into pitching, design tactics, etc. I hope you get something after you read. Quick read-